Ceredex Value Advisors LLC Sells 103,600 Shares of Element Solutions Inc. $ESI

Ceredex Value Advisors LLC reduced its position in Element Solutions Inc. (NYSE:ESI) by 15.8% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 551,550 shares of the company’s stock after selling 103,600 shares during the period. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC’s holdings in Element Solutions were worth $13,883,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of Element Solutions by 154.8% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,116 shares of the company’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 678 shares during the period. Elevation Point Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Element Solutions in the second quarter worth about $26,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Element Solutions by 710.1% during the 2nd quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 1,288 shares of the company’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 1,129 shares during the last quarter. Aster Capital Management DIFC Ltd acquired a new position in Element Solutions during the 3rd quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, SJS Investment Consulting Inc. lifted its position in Element Solutions by 6,693.1% during the 3rd quarter. SJS Investment Consulting Inc. now owns 1,970 shares of the company’s stock valued at $50,000 after purchasing an additional 1,941 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.32% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on the stock. CJS Securities upgraded shares of Element Solutions to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 11th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Element Solutions from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, February 21st. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Element Solutions from $34.00 to $43.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Truist Financial lifted their target price on shares of Element Solutions from $33.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 19th. Finally, Mizuho increased their price target on Element Solutions from $29.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $35.75.

Element Solutions Stock Performance

Shares of Element Solutions stock opened at $32.57 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $30.71 and its 200 day simple moving average is $27.62. The company has a current ratio of 3.68, a quick ratio of 3.00 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.60. The company has a market capitalization of $7.93 billion, a PE ratio of 41.23, a PEG ratio of 1.47 and a beta of 1.24. Element Solutions Inc. has a 12 month low of $16.77 and a 12 month high of $37.74.

Element Solutions (NYSE:ESI) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, February 17th. The company reported $0.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.36 by $0.01. Element Solutions had a return on equity of 13.79% and a net margin of 7.48%.The firm had revenue of $676.20 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $632.40 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.35 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 8.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that Element Solutions Inc. will post 1.45 EPS for the current year.

Element Solutions Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 16th. Investors of record on Monday, March 2nd will be paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 2nd. Element Solutions’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.51%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Matthew Liebowitz sold 37,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.60, for a total value of $984,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider owned 117,393 shares in the company, valued at $3,122,653.80. This represents a 23.96% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director E Stanley Oneal sold 143,564 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, February 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $35.52, for a total transaction of $5,099,393.28. Following the sale, the director directly owned 147,832 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,250,992.64. This represents a 49.27% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 6.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About Element Solutions

Element Solutions Inc is a global specialty chemicals company that develops and supplies highly engineered chemistries to performance-driven end markets. The company’s solutions serve customers across the electronics, energy, transportation, consumer and industrial sectors, with a particular emphasis on electronics chemicals, metal plating, and industrial coatings additives.

In the electronics market, Element Solutions provides a range of plating and surface-treatment chemistries used in the manufacture of printed circuit boards, semiconductor devices, and advanced display technologies.